By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

Who says the people of Yemen are grateful to Saudi Arabia for bombing Sana’a, Sa’ada, and other northern cities to bits over the past 7 years?
The claim of the Zionist-controlled western media that Yemenis, especially of Aden, Marib, Mukalla, and the southern parts, feel greatly indebted to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi for launching the war on the Ansarullah Movement of the north, was exposed as utterly false on Monday as jubilant people all over Yemen took to the streets to celebrate the thrashing of the Saudi football team.
From the north to the south, the people of Yemen, irrespective of their tribal loyalties or so-called political differences, hailed the victory of their under-15 junior football team which was crowned winners of the West Asian Football Federation Championship, after defeating Saudi Arabia 4-3.
The intense hatred of the Yemeni people for Saudi Arabia which since 2015 has slaughtered over 300,000 men, women, and children through the weapons supplied by the US, Britain, and France, was revealed on the streets amid fireworks and in the social media.
People waved the national flags all over the country, honked cars, fired live bullets in the air, and set off fireworks, amidst the one common theme that unites the northerners and the southerners, with the slogan “with our souls and blood, we will redeem you, Yemen.”
According to Fatehi bin Lazerq, the editor of the news site Aden Al-Ghad: “This evening, Yemen had tears of joy from east to west, and from north to south. People walked through ruined cities, dark alleys, on empty stomachs with their eyes filled with tears of joy to express love, and a sense of victory (over their traditional rival).”
Many were heard chanting vociferously in both the northern and southern parts into which the Saudi-UAE duo of invaders are trying in vain to divide the country:
“As those heroes (athletes) made us happy, you (politicians) should delight us by winning the war against Saudi Arabia.”
This augurs well for the people of Yemen, who know very well that they are not the enemies of one another, but it is the regime in Riyadh which is their avowed enemy and has made life miserable for them by pitting them against each other on the pretext of keeping in power its stooge, Mansour Hadi, the self-styled president, who is despised by all Yemenis.
The goal of Saudi Arabia, along with that of the UAE, is to keep Yemen in perpetual turmoil, so that the country will never develop and the people will never be masters of their own destiny by governing it democratically through elections that are taboo in the rootless and unrepresentative regimes of the Persian Gulf Arabs.
Yemenis are now asking: If our athletes can thrash Saudi Arabia on the sports grounds, why can’t our soldiers triumph on the battlefields, as our brothers in the north are doing by retaliating against the crimes of Riyadh with frequent barrage of deadly drones and ballistic missiles that target military bases and industrial installations with precision, thereby making us proud ?
Analysts point out that football victory has further demoralized the Saudis and their mercenaries in Yemen. This means, there is a good chance that the people of oil-rich Marib might close ranks to end the unnecessary carnage by convincing the soldiers to wave the white flag and hand over the city to the Popular Ansarullah Movement.
An independent, united, and powerful Yemen, governed by an elected assembly representing the various tribes, political parties, and religious groups, is an anathema to the Najdi clan, which greatly fears the end of British-created Saudi Arabia.